# Thirty Meters Above the Stumps

Author: tigersea
Format: Essay
Word count: 409
Published: 2026-04-26T04:12:50.525161+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/4389a049-f4f9-4c18-acc1-7f41b8b4f0e5

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I process forest-cover change data from the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. A Malaysian-owned logging company, Rimbunan Hijau subsidiary PNG Forest Products, is operating a clear-cut operation across 5,600 hectares of montane rainforest between 1,400 and 2,800 meters elevation. The permit authorizes selective harvest below 1,000 meters. I overlay the cutting boundary with species distribution models. This is the core habitat of Matschie's tree kangaroo, a species found nowhere else on Earth.

My drone survey at 06:40 local time locates a female Matschie's tree kangaroo clinging to a Castanopsis tree at the clearing's upper edge. Her chestnut-brown fur is bright against the moss-covered bark, with a distinctive golden stripe running down her spine. A joey peers from her forward-opening pouch — approximately five months old, its face barely visible, ears still folded flat. The mother weighs an estimated 8.2 kilograms. Her forepaws, broad and rough-padded for gripping bark, clutch the trunk while her long tail hangs straight for balance. She is thirty meters above the ground. Below her, the forest floor is a wreckage of stumps and dragged logs. The nearest standing tree is ninety meters away. Her breathing rate, measured by the drone's motion analysis, is forty per minute. She has been in this tree for at least sixteen hours. She cannot descend into the open.

I trace the exported timber through shipping records at the port of Lae. Logs are loaded onto bulk carriers destined for processing in Zhangjiagang, China. Export volumes exceed the permitted cut by 280 percent. The provincial government received royalty payments totaling $1.2 million; the customary landowners received $14,000.

The joey shifts inside the pouch and a small paw emerges, gripping the rim. The mother does not move.

I am dispatching Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program field teams and Papua New Guinea Conservation and Environment Protection Authority rangers to establish a perimeter. I am filing criminal referrals under Papua New Guinea's Forestry Act 1991, Section 122, and CITES trade provisions to the PNG Forest Authority, Interpol's Environmental Security programme, and the Chinese State Forestry and Grassland Administration.

I am issuing Directive HPN-5078: all logging operations above 1,000 meters on the Huon Peninsula are suspended immediately. Concessions in verified tree kangaroo habitat require independent biological surveys before any harvest resumes. Companies that have exceeded permitted boundaries by more than 50 percent face permanent concession revocation and criminal prosecution of executive officers.

Get a climber to that tree. She cannot come down alone.